Essay Example on Entertainment During The Great Depression

One of the world’s most devastating and cultural sparking events The Great Depression was one of the worst events to happen in America Lasting from 1929 to 1939 the depression was the outcome of the stock market crash which sent Wall Street into chaos and resulted in many lost jobs By 1933 the Great Depression hit its hardest resulting in 15 million unemployed Americans and half of America's banks shops and factories shutting down Consequently most people reverted to sources of entertainment to distract themselves through the struggling economy Although The Great Depression consisted of many negative aspects Americans came together through the enjoyment of entertainment such as movies radio music and sports When the Great Depression hit people had no trouble in trying to find some sort of entertainment to distract themselves family and friends when watching a movie Movies was the cheapest source of entertainment and With the addition of sound movies became increasingly popular Comedies gangster movies and musicals helped people forget their troubles Art 2 At the time of the 1929 crash Hollywood was in transition Sound was here to stay 

There d been huge investments made to the sets on the films and the theatres sound Movie careers had ended and been launched min the matter of a night Hollywood urgently needed to recoup their conversion investment and market this new form even as the country faced unprecedented hardship How movies got us through the Great Depression 2 With these ideas in mind they tried to make films and their marketing more eye catching their technology fast and emotions set throughout the films One of Hollywood's most successful idea was to make movie tickets cheap starting from ten to twenty five cents especially for those who have just lost their jobs and been laid off This gave some heartbroken people an inexpensive way to escape the reality With every visit to the theatre a viewer would get another plate for their plate set and a string of entertainment newsreels cartoons B pictures serials and A pictures How movies got us through the Great Depression 4 Furthermore radios also gained a wide variety of listeners as a source of reassurance of all the chaos in the world and entertainment The 1930s was part of a time that is called the Golden Age of Radio Around 40 percent of families owned a radio The Great Depression 2 

With the Radio becoming mainstream Radios began to sell out because of their popularity quantity and the sources of communication Lastly sports took off as a staple in homes offices and business All sporting events were enjoyed from young to old for fun and a way to cope with the stress of unemployment hardship and war While the politicians and bankers played their games the citizens turned to their radios or flocked to the fields to enjoy life without the worries of economic woes even if just a few hours Sports Entertainment during the Great Depression 2 As many of the sports we know to today nothing was as successful as American baseball was New stadiums had been built and offense was booming In 1930 both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig hit over 40 home runs The Golden Age of Baseball The 1930s 2 With the highly praised professional baseball players came the Hall of Fame The hall of fame was a nonprofit organization which praised and preserved some of the best players of all time The Hall of Fame would not be until 1939 that the Hall was built but its first five inductees would be Babe Ruth Ty Cobb Honus Wagner Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson The Golden Age of Baseball The 1930s 9 Although The Great Depression consisted of many negative aspects Americans came together through the enjoyment of entertainment such as movies radio music and sports Although many people struggled through this heartbreaking time people learned to enjoy themselves with new and improved technology and entertainment